27 May 2008 - New Pictures In The Gallery
We have now put up a selection of pictures from our adventure on the ice in the Gallery
21 May 2008 - Home Sweet Home
Well, we are pleased to say that we are now back in the UK after probably the biggest physical and mental challenge of our lives.
We had a fantastic adventure and will be updating the site with photographs from the ice very soon.
We will also be announcing how much money we have raised for charity (once the money has come in from all of our sponsors).
Thank you again for all of your love and support!
11 April 2008
Please keep up to date with our progress in the race and hear our audio diary at the official Polar Challenge 2008 website at www.polar-challenge.com
10 April 2008 - NEWFLASH: DAY 1
Today Competitors arrived in Resolute after a 2 day journey from the UK, France, New Zealand, and Taiwan! After a photo shoot in the UK they flew to Ottawa, where they stayed after night in before arising early morning today to take 4 flights from Ottawa to Resolute. All found stepping off the plane at Resolute a little brisk - with wind chill the temperature was below -25C. Tonight they will rest and recuperate after their journey, ready to begin lectures tomorrow.
Temperature: -19C Weather Conditions: Drifting Snow
7 April 2008 - 1 Day To Go!
We are all very excited today because our Polar adventure starts in less than 24 hours!
First thing tomorrow, we will be flying out to Resolute Bay, Northern Canada to begin our acclimatization and final training. This is the base for several famous North Pole expeditions including those by Ranulph Fiennes, David Hempleman-Adams, Pen Hadow.
After some lectures, further shotgun training, refreshing our ski skills, preparing our kit and a night of Arctic camping, we will depart on a 3 day mini expedition where we will be able to establish our Arctic routine.
After another day at Resolute for final preparations and one to one interviews we will depart on a 4-6 day 65 mile walk to the start line - here we will perfect our Arctic routines and ski skills ready for the race itself!
Our web master will be doing his best to keep this site up to date with our progress, but for all of the latest news on the Polar Challenge you can also visit the main Polar Challenge website here:
Thank you for all of your kind support and generous donations!
28 March 2008 - 11 Days to go!
We are off to start our Polar adventure in just 11 days now and we all still have loads to do before we go!
Thank you to everyone for all of your love and support, we couldn't be doing this without you. We shall put up a post on this page revealing how much money we have raised very soon.
In the meantime, here is link to some more information about The Afghanistan Trust - the charity which Steve is raising money for:
21 February 2008 - Polar Training in Norway
Earlier this month we went to Norway for seven days to experience similar conditions to those that we will be facing on our adventure to the North Pole.
Here are some short videos of our training as we try skiing with our fully loaded pulks for the first time, camping in temperatures as low as -25 degrees and even jumping through an ice hole into the freezing water below!
Just click on the play button to watch:
8th January 2008 - Afghanistan Trust in the News
Happy new year everybody! We are pleased to say that all of our training is still going well and we are going to Norway soon to experience some proper cold weather!
Here is a link to another story in the Telegraph about a soldier who is being helped by the Afghanistan Trust - click here.
Thank you for all your support, we will get some more pictures up soon!
18 December 2007 - Interview with the BBC
This morning Giles and Steve did an interview on BBC Radio Solent this morning. It was short and sweet and we were on air for a whole 3 minutes!
We have now become one of 'Julian's People' and he is going to follow our progress until after the Challenge. We are going back to be interviewed again after our training in Norway, just before we deploy and then when we get back from the North Pole next year.
To visit the Radio Solent page on the BBC website just click on the logo below:
8 December 2007 - Camping on Snow Training at the Tamworth Snowdome
Having efficient camping routines when we are in the Arctic will be critical to us reaching the North Pole successfully, so last weekend we spent a night camping on the snow at the Tamworth Snowdome in Staffordshire.
This night of camping on snow was designed to introduce us to more of our equipment and our Arctic camping routines, and to demonstrate how tough camping in freezing temperatures can be.
As you can see, we were taking it all very seriously ... until the scary polar bear attacked us in our pants!
28 November 2007 - GPS navigation training in the Black Mountains
Last weekend we ventured to the Black Mountains just outside Abergavenny to practice using our GPS's. After arriving a pitching camp on the Friday night we plotted our routes into our GPS's ready for a long distance orienteering course in the morning. Saturday brought with it miserable weather. During the 25km course the winds got up to 60 mph at some points and the temperature was well below freezing for the early part of the day. We completed the course and found that the GPS's were, in fact, easier to use than we had anticipated and now feel confident in using them. We had a great time as we met most of the other competitors and got to know them.
Our next event on 8/9th Dec is spending the night out in the Snow Dome in our tents and learning the ins and outs of tent routine - an important part of Arctic survival.
19 November 2007 - Article in The Telegraph: 'Mine Victims Return To The Front Line'
In this recent article from the Telegraph newspaper, you can learn more about some of our soldiers who are being financially supported by The Afghanistan Trust - one of the three charities we are raising money for.
One of the soldiers mentioned in the article is Stu Pearson, who was actually in Steve's company and is a friend of his. Steve has been to visit them all in Selly Oak Hospital a few times and is please to see that Stu is doing so well with the help of The Afghanistan Trust.
You can read the article by clicking here
6 November 2007 - Barney Takes On The Stroud Half Marathon ... In a Polar Bear Costume!
We have been taking part in lots of endurance races and physical challenges during 2007 to help us raise money and keep us on track us with our training.
Here is a great picture of Barney after he finished the Stroud Half Marathon on the 21st October. As you can see, it was a blazing hot day and he still managed to finish the race in a very impressive time of 1:49.03, despite the hilly course and additional fur!
1 November 2007 - New videos!
Here are some funny videos from our fantastic day at the Commando Challenge!
14 October 2007 - The Royal Marine 7 Mile Marine Challenge
On Sunday the 14th October, we donned our dinner-jackets once again to tackle a 7 mile Commando assault course in Devon.
The course took us through a number of different obstacles including a swamp where we sank up to our necks in sticky mud, a completely submerged water tunnel which made our clothes weigh a tonne and a tunnel where we had to crawl 20 metres on our hands and knees across sharp gravel!
Despite being slightly over-dressed for the occasion, we all made it the full distance in a very respectable time thanks to our new training regimes and the never ending support of the crowd.
There are more photos from the day in the Gallery and we are currently trying to get some very funny videos up on YouTube - so watch this space!
Thank you Dhyana!
This fantastic picture was drawn by Dhyana Kim, one of the pupils at the school where Barney teaches - click on the picture to enlarge it - the details are brilliant!
September 2007 - Ski Training
This first Polar Challenge 2007 Training Session was a great opportunity to meet all of the other racers and practice our skiing. We were issued with our GPS systems and taught how to use it within our training programs for the challenge.
As you can see, we decided to get dressed up for the occasion!
The Challenge
- 21stApril 2008 - on or around the 7th May 2008
We will arrive at the Polar Challenge Start Line having spent nearly 2 weeks acclimatizing and training to be ready for the race. The race itself runs from the Start Line (near Polaris) to the Finish Line (at Isachsen Mine) through 3 checkpoints. The first two checkpoints are resupply points where we will rest for 12-24 hours and take on new food and fuel supplies, and the third is the 1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole. It is difficult for planes to land here so the finish line is 16 nautical miles after this point, near a dissused airstrip. After reaching the finish line we will fly on an amazing journey across the Arctic expanse that we have just crossed, before returning to Resolute to prepare to fly home.
